While I wouldn't exactly call myself an “ABU” supporter when it comes to football, there's one quality in the culture around Manchester United & a portion of their fans I certainly wouldn't want to see replicated in Leinster Rugby circles.
Backing yourself to consistently produce excellence is one thing, but assuming that positive results are somehow an automatic right is definitely another.
Leinster were out-gunned by Clermont Auvergne in the back-to-back series in December, plain and simple. That, together with just three tries scored in four matches put us in the situation we were in going into these final two matches against the Scarlets and Exeter.
As we have often heard in relation to the economy, “we are where we are” and all Joe Schmidt could do was lay out a gameplan that was designed to maximise the try-scoring return from both matches. This meant he needed a 160-minute strategy, not the regular 80-minute one, because no matter how many marquee players you have at your disposal, if you wear them out one week you risk being without some of them the next.
So if some Leinster fans want to bemoan the fact that we “only” scored five tries on Saturday evening, that is of course their right, but you won't hear anything like that from me. All I wanted from these two matches was for us to be seen to be going for it, and I for one am pleased to report it's job done so far with a bit left in the tank for the phase 2 in Devon next week.
Take Cian Healy, for example. In rounds 1-4 of the Heineken Cup this season he had been credited with 19 carries in 224 minutes. Last Saturday, he had 12 in the first half alone (including the crucial opening try), and then was taken off for the more-than-able replacement Heinke van der Merwe. I could be wrong, but I'd wager Church was told to go for broke in the first half rather than pace himself as players (especially props) are normally advised to do.
Maybe that wasn't the case, but still you can be sure that the coaching ticket had to think along those lines with the two matches in mind, I mean just look who he had wearing the number 23 jumper!
But despite all the planning and preparation, there's also the small matter of your opposition. They're never there to make up the numbers, and even if they are missing a number of key players much as Leinster were earlier in the season, you can be pretty sure that at Heineken Cup level they're going to have a few names who can do damage.
ESPN's statistician says the Scarlets defence had 193 tackles to make on the night. Not all of them were successful, not all of them were legal (will get to that later), but still that's a monumental effort for any team that's under the kosh from the very kickoff, and in players like Liam Williams (who no doubt Ireland will get to know shortly) and Sione Timani (who wasn't even supposed to start) the Welsh region certainly didn't roll over for us.
Now it's time to write about how the boys in blue played. Every ounce of the intensity from one to fifteen we showed in Murrayfield last week was still there, right from the opening kickoff. That first try was always going to be a crucial ice-breaker and it only took us seven minutes for Church to worm his way over the line. Despite the late withdrawal of Sean O'Brien, the forwards were also responsible for the second courtesy of Shane Jennings.
But surely the most welcome feast for the eyes of the RDS faithful was the man-of-the-match display by Luuuuuke Fitzgerald, and he certainly wasn't simply awarded it for scoring the third try. The restarts seemed to be magnetically drawn to him and he dealt with every one, the jinking runs are back and even the odd tackle around his neck area (dangerous for anyone but particularly Luke given his recent history) couldn't stop him.
Another man who couldn't be put down was Jonathan Sexton. I tend not to mention him too much in writeups because it's easy to take his abilities for granted. But it's not just the general running of the offensive pace that deserves a mention...you can almost put your house on him being first in with a tackle moments after receiving treatment, and it's not often his misses one either.
Final Leinster player I'm singling out is Jamie Heaslip. There's a very lazy analysis going around the ruggersphere about him that he's “invisible”. Those who say that need to open their eyes and watch Leinster's Heineken Cup campaign to date. 54 successful tackles in a row altogether, 24 carries on Saturday, a more-than-handy lineout option and to those who think he's no good at number 8, look how much front-foot ball we got off the back of scrums and think again.
OK now I run the risk of contradicting myself. Leinster were on a mission to score tries, but the referee's job is certainly not to help that happen. So some may say that for Joe Schmidt to go down to the tunnel and meet Jerome Garces at halftime to complain about the amount of penalties the Scarlets were shipping in their own 22 was a move on a par with Sir Alex Ferguson.
But a look at the stats tells you 14 penalties in total were awarded in the first half. SIX were committed by the visitors when we had the ball in their 22. Of those, two were never taken because we scored tries, but I can't for the life of me understand why the ref didn't at least issue a warning.
And the most ironic thing of all? Impressive and all as the Scarlets move was that created their lone try on the halftime buzzer (14 phases followed by a crossfield kick), the extra space was there because we were down to 14 men as Fergus McFadden was receiving treatment down the other end of the park. Given the way were were constantly breaching the gainline when we had the ball I can only imagine how we would have done with the extra man ourselves.
Honourable mention in the performance department goes to Devin “part giraffe part lighthouse” Toner (courtesy of Sky's Mark Robson), who although still not exactly crushing all before him with the ball, certainly chipped in with a neat pass for Luke's try and got us on the front foot by snagging the second half restart that led almost directly to Rob Kearney's superbly taken try that locked down the bonus point.
It was fitting that Ian Madigan added a fifth dot-down at the death, one which we could well be thankful for when all is said and done. It's a crying shame that there's no foreseeable way to shoe-horn him into the starting lineup when everyone is available (some say scrum-half but Messrs Boss & Reddan haven't done much wrong to justify that drastic switch) but he is certainly the perfect man to bring on for the final quarter – if you really want to level criticism at Schmidt, maybe he could have come on earlier than the 71st minute.
How do we approach next week? Well, if the coaching staff had a 160-minute strategy, I'd say there's no need to deviate from it whatsoever. Would I make changes in personnel? Well, although Aaron Dundon did extremely well in his cameo, it would of course be a huge boost to have Richardt Strauss back in the fray. Similar goes for Jordi Murphy when it comes to Sean O'Brien.
If our injury count is clear today and we get those two regular starters back next week, there's every chance we can equal or better this display. No doubt the Chiefs and their amazing (and vocal) fans will have something to say about it, but like I said, all we can do is deal with our side of the equation as best as we can. I do expect to see a lot less “molly-coddling” of the matchday squad next week...with key matches to take place on the following day elsewhere, all we can do is keep going and going until the final whistle and see where we land.
After that, all we will have left to do is pray. Perhaps when you've won three out of four Heineken Cups that's not where you want to be going into round six. But we must remember that when we won the first of those three titles, we lost two of our pool matches, finished on 20 points, and actually finished first, albeit as sixth seed overall. That same total is what we are still desperately craving now yet it comes with no guarantees.
Such is the nature of this great competition and its complex pool phase. It's never about one team's quest for glory, it's about great squads all over Europe going at it for a place in the knockout stage. You can be sure nobody is ruling out the reigning champions just yet on this display. Here's hoping there's more like it to come. JLP
Also this weekend…
Northampton Saints 18 - 12 Castres
Sale Sharks 6 - 27 Montpellier
Clermont Auvergne 46 - 3 Exeter Chiefs
Ospreys 15 - 15 Leicester Tigers
Toulouse 35 - 14 Benetton Treviso
